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Spongebob SquarePants
SpongeBob SquarePants (often referred to simply as SpongeBob) is an American animated television series, created by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg. Much of the series centers on the exploits and adventures of the title character and his various friends in the underwater city of "Bikini Bottom". The series' popularity has prompted the release of a media franchise, contributing to its position as Nickelodeon's highest rated show, the most distributed property of MTV Networks, and among Nicktoons' most-watched shows.1 As of 2011, SpongeBob SquarePants is the only Nicktoon from the 1990s that has not ended yet. The basis for SpongeBob SquarePants was formed by Hillenburg in 1984 while teaching and studying marine biology at the Ocean Institute in Dana Point, California, where he wrote the comic strip The Intertidal Zone, which starred various anthropomorphic forms of sea life, many of which would evolve into SpongeBob SquarePants characters. He left the institute to become an animator in 1987, and later attended the California Institute of Arts in 1992. In the institute, he made his thesis film Wormholes (1992), which led to his hiring as a director, writer, producer, storyboard artist, and executive producer of the series Rocko's Modern Life by creator Joe Murray. He started to develop the series in 1996 following Rocko's Modern Life's, and pitched the series to Nickelodeon in 1998 and was later greenlit for a first season. The pilot episode of SpongeBob SquarePants first aired episodes in the United States on Nickelodeon on May 1, 1999, following the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. The first episodes were called "Help Wanted", "Reef Blower", "Tea at the Treedome". The "official" series premiere followed on July 17, 1999, with the second episode, "Bubblestand/Ripped Pants." The show reached enormous popularity by 2000 and has remained popular since. A feature film of the series was released in theaters on November 19, 2004. The series is currently in its seventh season and celebrated its tenth anniversary on July 17, 2009. SpongeBob was renewed for a ninth season on January 3, 2011,2 and the traditional definition of season is different for this series and defines more that episodes are ordered for future airing rather than they will be aired throughout one calendar year. Characters *Spongebob Squarepants *Squidward Tentacles *Gary *Patrick Star *Sandy Cheeks *Mr. Krabs Setting Much of the series' events take place in Bikini Bottom, an underwater city located in the Pacific Ocean beneath the real life tropical isle of Bikini Atoll.4 Stephen Hillenburg has stated that much of Bikini Bottom was based on the real life city of Seattle.5 Much of this is supported within the context of the episodes themselves; however, despite implications of the city's location as well as anologies to real life, Hillenburg has stated that he wishes to leave the city isolated from the real world, explaining the Baywatch parody scene from The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie as simply a reference to his favorite show of all time.56 The citizens of Bikini Bottom live in mostly aquatic-themed buildings, and use "boatmobiles", an amalgamation of cars and boats, as a mode of transportation. The characters' Anthropomorphism may be due to exposure to radiation from the BAKER test as stated by the creator of the show. Popularity SpongeBob SquarePants was the first "low budget" Nickelodeon cartoon, according to the network, to become extremely popular. Low-budget cartoons had not garnered as much esteem as higher-rated, higher-budgeted shows, although when SpongeBob SquarePants aired in 1999, it had gained a significant enough number of viewers in the ratings to be considered popular, eventually reaching worldwide popularity by 2000. SpongeBob follows other Nickelodeon shows that have attracted "older" followers: Other shows have followed in this trend as well: The Fairly OddParents won a similar fan base when it premiered in 2001, and is now second only to SpongeBob in popularity. Though the show debuted in 1999, SpongeBob did not become hugely popular until around 2000, and it has remained popular since then. Heavy metal group Metallica even released a T-shirt featuring cartoon versions of themselves playing live with the characters SpongeBob and Patrick. British rock singer David Bowie was a special guest on the SpongeBob SquarePants episode Atlantis SquarePantis, which aired on November 12, 2007.38 The episode drew total 8.8 million viewers, the biggest audience in the show's eight-year history.38 The show became so popular with adolescents and adults that the series was broadcast on MTV and featured on Spike TV. A quote by Patrick, "It's gonna rock!" from the episode Mid-Life Crustacean, has been used as a promotional tag-line for rock stations. Ren and Stimpy, among others, had followed a similar path. The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie features a cameo appearance by actor David Hasselhoff, in a parody of his role from the Baywatch TV series. In April 2009, as a tie-in to the special "SpongeBob vs. The Big One", Burger King distributed two different commercials geared toward children and adult audiences. In ads broadcast on major networks, the commercial shows rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot recording a music video for his new song, “SpongeBob Got Back”. Category:Nickelodeon Category:Spongebob SquarePants Category:Cartoons